Praison AI

Context Optimizer CLI

CLI reference for context optimization strategies and configuration

python
from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(name="optimizer", instructions="Optimise agent prompts and configurations.")
agent.start("Optimise this agent's system prompt for better accuracy.")

Configure context optimization behaviour via CLI flags and interactive commands.

The user chats in the CLI; context flags compact history before the model hits token limits.

Diagram

Optimizer CLI

💬 praisonai chat

⚙️ Context flags

🗜️ Auto-compact

✅ Session stays in budget

How It Works

Diagram
Context Optimizer CLIAgentUserContext Optimizer CLIAgentUserRequestProcess requestResult Agent–>>User: Response

Quick Start

  1. Simple Usage
    bash
    praisonai chat --context-strategy smart --context-auto-compact

    Inside the session, compact manually when needed:

    bash
    > /context compact
  2. With Configuration
    bash
    praisonai chat \
  --context-strategy smart \
  --context-threshold 0.7 \
  --no-context-auto-compact

    Or set defaults in config.yaml:

    yaml
    context:
  auto_compact: true
  compact_threshold: 0.8
  strategy: smart

CLI Flags

Strategy

bash
# Smart optimizer (default, recommended)
praisonai chat --context-strategy smart

# Simple truncation
praisonai chat --context-strategy truncate

# Sliding window
praisonai chat --context-strategy sliding_window

# Summarize old messages
praisonai chat --context-strategy summarize

# Prune old tool outputs
praisonai chat --context-strategy prune_tools
StrategyDescriptionBest For
smartIntelligent combinationGeneral use
truncateRemove oldest messagesFast, simple
sliding_windowKeep recent N messagesConversation flow
summarizeCompress old messagesContext preservation
prune_toolsTruncate tool outputsTool-heavy workflows

Auto-Compaction

bash
# Enable (default)
praisonai chat --context-auto-compact

# Disable
praisonai chat --no-context-auto-compact

Threshold

bash
# Trigger at 80% usage (default)
praisonai chat --context-threshold 0.8

# More aggressive (70%)
praisonai chat --context-threshold 0.7

# Less aggressive (90%)
praisonai chat --context-threshold 0.9

Interactive Commands

Manual Compaction

bash
> /context compact

Output:

Optimizing context...
✓ Optimized: 45,000 → 30,000 tokens
Saved 15,000 tokens (33.3%)
Strategy: smart

View Optimization History

bash
> /context history

Output:

Optimization History
Time                     Event                Tokens       Saved
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2024-01-07T12:00:00      overflow_detected       45,000          -
2024-01-07T12:00:01      auto_compact           45,000     -15,000

View Current Config

bash
> /context config

Shows auto_compact, threshold, and strategy settings.

Environment Variables

bash
export PRAISONAI_CONTEXT_AUTO_COMPACT=true
export PRAISONAI_CONTEXT_THRESHOLD=0.8
export PRAISONAI_CONTEXT_STRATEGY=smart

config.yaml

yaml
context:
  auto_compact: true
  compact_threshold: 0.8
  strategy: smart
  compression_min_gain_pct: 5.0
  compression_max_attempts: 3

Strategy Details

Smart (Recommended)

Combines multiple strategies intelligently:

  1. First tries non-destructive pruning
  2. Falls back to sliding window
  3. Uses truncation as last resort
bash
praisonai chat --context-strategy smart

Truncate

Simply removes oldest messages until under budget.

bash
praisonai chat --context-strategy truncate

Sliding Window

Keeps the most recent N messages that fit in budget.

bash
praisonai chat --context-strategy sliding_window

Summarize

Compresses old messages into a summary (requires LLM call).

bash
praisonai chat --context-strategy summarize

Prune Tools

Truncates old tool outputs while preserving recent ones.

bash
praisonai chat --context-strategy prune_tools

Troubleshooting

Context still overflowing

bash
# Lower threshold
praisonai chat --context-threshold 0.6

# Use more aggressive strategy
praisonai chat --context-strategy truncate

Losing important context

bash
# Use smart strategy
praisonai chat --context-strategy smart

# Or increase threshold
praisonai chat --context-threshold 0.9

Auto-compact not triggering

bash
# Check if enabled
> /context config

# Verify threshold
> /context stats

Best Practices

Start with smart strategy

smart combines pruning, sliding window, and summarisation — use it unless you have a specific reason not to.

Set threshold below 1.0

Trigger compaction at 0.7–0.8 so optimisation runs before the model hard-fails on context overflow.

Use /context stats during long sessions

Check token usage before manually compacting — /context history shows what each compaction saved.

Related

Context Optimizer

Python API and strategy reference

 Context Monitor

Watch optimisation in action

 Context Budgeter

Set token budgets per session

 Intelligent Conversation Compaction

Long-session compaction deep-dive